Hello and Welcome to my blog.
How are you, my chess nerds? The more I play the more I realise how closely it resembles life. It is hard, and brutal and punishes you when you make mistakes. Just like for living a good life, you need to work hard for a long period... you need to make good moves for a long period if you need to play well or win. Yes, sometimes people get lucky but you can get lucky in a game of chess too. That's why I say, "Chess is Life" and life is a complicated game of chess, where you need to calculate each of your moves carefully but sometimes when you understand the right move you lose on time and that moment has passed.
Anyway, I have been playing chess much more in the last week than I did in the last few months. It hasn't been easy and requires much effort and patience. One night, I was playing some bullet (1+0 time control) games just before going to bed. I just wanted to win a game and sleep peacefully. But that was my biggest mistake.
I went onto a losing streak...was so desperate for a win that I was just making moves without thinking. Sure, you have to make quick moves in bullet games but still you think for a second before moving but I wasn't. Well, I lost games in a row in what feels like an eternity. Around 30 minutes of extreme stress and chaos but I managed to get lucky in the 9th one and won. It was a lucky win too...lol
I played a chess960 tournament today as well which didn't go well for me. I woke up in the middle of the tournament and a friend reminded me so I rushed to Lichess only to get beaten left right and center!
Chess is Brutal, man! Losing a winning position on time is so tough. This position will give me a good opportunity to show you the position of the day!
Position of the Day
Black to play and Win!
What a crazy position. The white king is not feeling fine as the h pawn and Black Queen threaten a deadly checkmate. So, White tried to shoo away the queen by Rg3.
Both the players had around half a minute to think and Black went for a quick check Qf1+ which was not the best move. The best move is to of course take the rook with your sniper bishop and with any piece of white recaptures it will lead to a checkmate soon.
Engine suggests some crazy knight move and to just prolong this losing game and not recapture the black bishop. I still can't believe I missed this easy capture and gave a check and ultimately lost the game on time. Feels terrible.
Double Bishop advantage!
I was playing with the Black pieces in the following game and managed to force a blunder out of my opponent. Game link
I got a really comfortable position out of the opening in this game. I love to play the Sicilian Defense and it really gives me comfortable play. It didn't go so well for White as the game reached the middle game.
I had the bishop pair and a fairly open position and as we all know Bishops favour the open position and do wonders. I managed to win a pawn and hold on to my advantage. This extra pawn in the centre of the board really crammed White for space and eventually, they succumbed to a simple tactic.
Losing a Queen like this is just hopeless and after a couple of more moves, White finally realised that they have no chance and resigned. It was a solid game for me with very few mistakes!
A mishandled Endgame!
In the next game, I was playing with White pieces and played the d4 followed by c4 which I usually play and give that pawn to open up the center. I love open positions. But my opponent went with the Indian Defense...lol. Game link
I felt like I had some advantage in the opening but couldn't do anything concrete with that edge. Soon that edge fizzled out and we exchanged a lot of pieces including Queens.
The middle or endgames with rooks and pawns are so complicated. I didn't know how to play with those and struggled a lot. I was pushed at first but I lost some crucial pawns on the King's side which just gave me a losing position.
Black just had to push their pawn and they did. I should have stopped the black pawn from promotion but both of us were struggling with time. With so little time remaining, I just had to play some quick moves and it worked! I won on Time! Sure, it feels great when you are on this side of the line winning from a lost position just because the other guy got flagged. Let me say it again, Chess is Brutal!
2000 Blitz Rating Goal!
I saw this chart in my Lichess Profile and the interesting thing to note here is I am better than 76.9% of all the Blitz players on this platform. And keep in mind that just a fraction of the population is on this platform, mostly those guys who know how to play chess and are interested in playing. Imagine all those who don't even know how to play or just Noobs. So, statistically speaking, if you pick any person from a random population, I should be able to beat them easily. I have to be in the top 0.1% for sure. See... that's how I make myself happy after losing 8 games in a row...lol
Let's just hope I can cross 2000 Blitz before the end of the year!
- All the content is mine unless otherwise stated.
- Screenshots and GIFs from Lichess.org and banner created in Canva.
- Text dividers from @cryptosharan.